Lovina Eicher: Every day brings another spring surprise

Wednesday

Apr 9, 2014 at 12:16 AMApr 9, 2014 at 12:16 AM

April is here, bringing us warmer temperatures.

Monday was nice and warm. We hung all the laundry outside on the lines. By evening all of it was dry. How nice to be able to wash the clothes and put them away the same day. It is laundry day again today but it doesn’t look like we will be able to hang the clothes outside. It is rainy and very windy. I’m wondering if we could have a thunderstorm yet today.

The frost in the ground is leaving more every day so hopefully it will be okay to get some early garden planted a few weeks from now. Time will tell if the winter weather is over.

The excitement last night was that daughter Susan’s pony, Roxie, gave birth to a cute little foal. Susan is still undecided what to name him. Daughter Elizabeth’s friend, Timothy, had his second horse give birth to a foal this week. He has another horse that should deliver soon. He has some frisky little foals running around on nice days outside.

Susan spent Tuesday evening at her friend Mose’s house. Mose’s sister, Marilyn, and some of her children were visiting from Iowa. Most of Mose’s family gathered at their parents house so they could all get to visit with her.

Daughter Verena and I have been cleaning out the kitchen cabinets. Things seem to accumulate and get disorganized from one cleaning to the next. It will be so relaxing once everything is cleaned for the upcoming church services we will host here soon. My sewing is getting pushed back again. Hopefully it can wait until the garden is planted, but all that depends on the weather.

Sunday, my sisters Susan and Verena invited Jacob, Emma, and family and our family for dinner. They had a delicious meal. On the menu was a haystack, which is layering foods on top of each other on your plate, usually foods such as crushed Doritos, crushed saltine crackers, taco-seasoned hamburger, lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, hot peppers, onions, spaghetties, cheese sauce, salsa and ranch dressing. For dessert there was cinnamon rolls, Reese’s pudding, ice cream, peanut butter bars, finger jello, cottage cheese dessert. Homemade bread, butter, and jam were also on the menu.

The men and boys spent the afternoon playing croquet and taking advantage of the nice weather. The rest of us visited and looked through the new cookbook sisters Verena and Susan put together and self-published. They gave each of us one and all the children one too. The recipes they gathered from our family members makes it very interesting. They have lots and lots of boxes of them they want to sell in stores.

The Reese’s pudding recipe I made to take along Sunday was in that cookbook. I will share it with you readers.

Reese's pudding

1 cup powdered sugar

1 /3 cup peanut butter

8 ounces cream cheese

3 cups whipped cream

3 cups milk

1 (4-ounce) instant chocolate pudding

1 (4-ounce) instant vanilla pudding

2 to 3 cups crushed graham crackers

1 /2 cup melted margarine or butter

8 ounces whipped topping to put on top

Reese’s cups for garnish

In a 9-by-13-inch pan, prepare a graham cracker crust by pouring the melted margarine over the graham crackers in the pan, pressing down. Mix powdered sugar, cream cheese, peanut butter, and whipped cream and pour on top of crust. Mix milk and puddings and pour over cream cheese mixture. Top with more whipped cream and garnish with Reese’s cups.